With 21 national dailies, 12 television stations, and several emerging online news sources, Nigeria continued to boast one of the most vibrant news media cultures on the continent. But a series of attacks fanned fears in the press corps and prompted self-censorship.

An editor who covered
sensitive political news was murdered at his home outside Lagos, while local
operatives with the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) assaulted
journalists with impunity in a series of episodes, some of which occurred in
government buildings. The attacks had Nigerian journalists talking already
about the potential pressures they could face in the 2011 presidential and
parliamentary elections. The PDP has held power with little difficulty since
the country returned to civilian rule in 1999, but opposition parties have
talked about uniting in 2011, a step that would make the contests more
competitive—and more challenging to cover.

Nigeria has been
relatively free of deadly violence against the press during this decade, but
journalists were startled by a killing on a Sunday morning in September. Six
assailants arrived at the doorstep of Bayo Ohu, an assistant editor and
political reporter for the private daily The
Guardian, and shot him several
times, according to news reports and relatives. The attackers took his cell
phone and one of his two laptops. The Nigerian Union of Journalists said it
believed Ohu had been slain for his reporting. He had recently examined
allegations of fraud in the Customs Department and had covered a contentious
gubernatorial election in southwest Ekiti state. His widow, Blessing, told CPJ that she would
carry on Ohu’s work. “This is my reason to go into journalism—to find out why
he was killed and to continue reporting those things that his killers did not want
reported,” she said. Two suspects were detained in late October, but no motive
was immediately disclosed.

Spring elections in Ekiti
were marked by several reports of violence and obstruction. In April, PDP
operatives roughed up three photographers and damaged their equipment at a
police roadblock near the home of Sen. Ayo Arise in Oyo-Ekiti, said one of the
journalists, Segun Bakare of The
Punch. The same month,
Nigeria’s broadcast regulator, the National Broadcasting Commission, fined the
private radio Adaba FM 500,000 naira (US$3,350) for transmitting content that
it said incited public violence.

The most egregious attack
occurred in the Government House in the state capital, Ado-Ekiti, where
supporters of PDP Gov. Segun Oni assaulted three reporters who arrived to
interview a campaign manager. One of the reporters, Ozim Gospel of the National Guide, said the April attack occurred after the journalists had come
upon Oni supporters filling out what seemed to be fraudulent ballots. The
reporters, who filed a complaint with authorities, required hospital treatment
for their injuries, and much of their equipment was destroyed. A witness
recorded the attack and posted it on YouTube. Oni won re-election in the Ekiti
balloting. No arrests had been made in the Government House attack by late
year.

A similar assault was
reported at the Government House in southeast Imo state in September. A
security agent used his shoe to beat Radio Nigeria correspondent Wale Olukun in
the presence of the state government’s press secretary, according to news
reports and local journalists. Three other agents joined in the assault, Olukun
told CPJ. The journalist said he had recently aired a report about a visually
impaired youth who protested perceived shortcomings in public services.

Reporting in the volatile,
oil-rich Niger Delta was exceptionally difficult in the first half of 2009 amid
fighting
between government forces and militants demanding a greater local share in oil
revenue, the editor of the private weekly National Point, Ibiba Don Pedro, told CPJ. Sowore Omoyele, publisher of the news Web site Sahara Reporters, said few reporters risked firsthand coverage
during that period. “The government told the local press they could not
guarantee their protection amid the violence, so most kept away and relied on
press statements issued by the warring parties,” Omoyele said.

Conditions in the Niger
Delta improved slightlyin June after the government granted amnesty
to some of the local militants, allowing more firsthand coverage, several
journalists told CPJ. But security forces continued to harass and intimidate
reporters perceived as being critical, leading to ongoing self-censorship, they
said. In November, security forces detained three journalists for two days on
charges of “false publication” in their coverage of a conflict between Port
Harcourt residents and soldiers, local journalists told CPJ.Developments in the region
have vast local repercussions because of environmental and health degradation
caused by oil production. The region also has significant international impact
given the extent of the reserves there. Nigeria is Africa’s leading oil
producer.

Internet penetration was
estimated at just 7 percent in 2009, according to Internet World Statistics, a
market research company, but online publications started to break stories that
influenced traditional media. Shu’aibu Usman, national secretary of the
Nigerian Union of Journalists, told CPJ that newspapers were now republishing
or following up on stories that first appeared online. Some print editors faced
government scrutiny about those stories. Police in the northern Kano state
questioned Tukur Mamu, editor of the private weekly Desert Herald,in July after he reprinted a story from the
online Sahara Reporters about an unsolved murder, the journalist told
CPJ. Mamu was released the next day. He was detained again in October after the
paper published its own article claiming the president’s wife had assumed
oversight of some government construction contracts, he said. On both
occasions, Mamu noted, agents interrogated him about his relationship with the
online Sahara Reporters.

Some journalists blamed
media owners for allowing political pressure to unduly influence content.
Usman, the journalist union secretary, said ownership is largely in the hands
of “politicians or businessmen who allow their personal concerns to dominate
their publications.” In October, President Umaru Yar’Adua threatened to revoke
the license of Africa Independent Television, citing “threats to national
security” that apparently stemmed from the station’s political talk show,
“Focus Nigeria,” according to local news reports. The station soon replaced the
show’s popular moderator, Gbenga Arulegba, who was known for his provocative
style. AIT Chairman Raymond Dokpesi said government pressure had nothing to do
with the move.

But one newspaper dealt
Yar’Adua a setback in court. In June, the Court of Appeal ruled the president
could not pursue a defamation complaint against the private daily Leadership until he left office, according to news reports. The complaint
stemmed from a November 2008 report in Leadership saying that the president had been ill, Leadership Executive Director Aniebo Nwamu said.